Lust AND Wings

Faelynn I had been watching him for the better part of the afternoon. He was speaking with one of his friends leaning back in his chair with the kind of easy confidence that only people who had never been told no seemed to carry. I didn't understand a word of what they were saying human language was something I had never quite managed to learn but I could read his face well enough. Happy and Relaxed alive in a way that made my chest do something embarrassing every time I looked at him. He was Prince Kaiser next king of Solaris and he was without question the most wonderful thing I had ever seen in my one hundred years of living. I felt my feet lift off the table before I had made any conscious decision to move. My wings carried me in a swift silent arc across the library fast as a sparrow in a dive until I tucked myself neatly behind a tall gold drinking glass much closer to him now. Close enough to see the way the late afternoon light caught the angles of his face. I let out a very quiet very dreamy sigh. Beautiful I thought that is the only word for it or the only word I knew. Outside the library window the sky had begun to blush pink and amber at the edges. My stomach dropped the sun was setting. I looked left I looked right Kaiser's friend had turned his head to look at something across the room now was my chance. I shot forward on silent wings a blur of movement no bigger than a dragonfly and was through the open window before either of them could blink. Or so I thought. For just a half second less than a heartbeat I felt his gaze catch mine. Kaiser's amber eyes, sharp with surprise, flicked directly to me. Then I was gone out into the open air heart hammering so loudly I was sure the whole of Solaris could hear it. He looked at me. The thought chased me all the way home warm and ridiculous and impossible to shake. I was smiling so wide my cheeks ached by the time the familiar trees of Glimmerbell rose up around me,my forest, my home, tucked right against the borders of the human kingdom like a secret the world had forgotten to tell. It was beautiful in the way that magic always is quietly, completely in every direction at once. Creatures moved between the roots and branches, Fairies drifted through the air, their wings catching the last light like scattered gemstones. The hollow trees that marked our border were beginning to close for the night, their bark curling slowly shut, and I slipped through just in time. The other fairies waved as I passed I waved back trying very hard to look as though I had been here for hours. I almost made it to my flower bed. "Faelynn." I stopped closed my eyes and turned around. Mother Olga descended towards me with the grace of someone who had been doing this for fifty thousand years and had long since stopped finding it tiring. She was breathtaking in the way ancient things are tall, luminous, wrapped in white that seemed to glow from somewhere inside the fabric itself. She was the first fairy ever born in Glimmerbell the mother of all of us and she was currently looking at me with one perfectly arched blonde eyebrow raised so high it was nearly in her hair. Across the clearing Rose pink-hairednflower-crowned and deeply unhelpful mouthed something urgent at me. I squinted I couldn't make it out. "Have you done what I asked of you today Fae?" Mother Olga asked her voice gentle in the particular way that meant it was anything but. "Yes," I said. "Of course I have." She pinched the bridge of her nose. "The twins did your work tonight," she said quietly. "You were supposed to ensure the bed flowers had enough dust to float. Instead you were in the human world. Again." My wings drooped I hated this part the part where she was right and we both knew it and there was nothing to say that would help. Mother Olga turned to address the rest of the clearing her voice lifting into something warmer. "Alright, everyone into your flowers night is here let's rest well." She moved among the younger fairies tucking them gently into their blooms and I used the distraction to slink towards my own. Rose appeared at my side immediately. "I tried," she whispered though she mostly looked like she was trying not to laugh. "Faelynn, you really have to stop cutting it this close." "I know," I said. "I got distracted." "By that prince." "I didn't say that." "You didn't have to." She gave me a look. "You know, it wouldn't kill you to find a mate among your own kind. Someone who can actually see you." Rose had strong opinions about mating, She had strong opinions about most things, actually, but mating especially. I shook my head. "You find a mate," I told her. "I'm perfectly happy observing. And Rose -" I couldn't help it I was already smiling again "he is just beautiful." She groaned and climbed into her red rose flower bed clicking her fingers to change into her night lace that was mostly underwear and a bra because most fairies prefer being in less when asleep. I settled into the pink one beside her and did the same around us petals were folding closed one by one soft and quiet as a held breath. "You can never actually be with him you know," Rose said finally staring up at the canopy. "He's human. You're not." I pouted at the ceiling of my flower. "Unless I were human," I said. Rose turned her head to look at me. "Don't." "I'm just saying -" "Faelynn." "What about the mad fairy?" The words came out before I could stop them. The entire clearing went silent around us petals snapped shut even the creatures in the roots went still Rose sat up so fast she nearly fell out of her flower. "Absolutely not," she hissed. Before she could say another word Mother Olga was there her expression unreadable her magic already curling around our flowers like a gentle immovable command. "Enough," she said simply. "Sleep." Our petals closed. In the soft dark of my rose surrounded by the faint warm glow of gold dust I lay very still and listened to Glimmerbell settle into night. I will visit the mad fairy tomorrow.